There are for example computers comprising several electronic boards assembled parallel with each other in a housing, also called a basket or rack. In order to ensure the maintenance of the equipment, the different boards can be disassembled. The assembly and disassembly of the boards is carried out by a movement of translation of the latter in grooves that are part of the housing.
The boards are formed of a printed circuit carrying electronic components. During their functioning, the electronic components release heat which has to be evacuated from the electronic equipment.
Several solutions have been considered for cooling electronic equipment. It is for example possible to cause a coolant fluid, such as air for example, to flow along the boards or in the immediate vicinity of the components and thus to cool them by forced convection.
It is also possible to equip the board to be cooled with a heat sink in the form of a plate made from a material having high thermal conductivity, such as copper or aluminum for example, the components being in contact with this sink. The plate has substantially the same area as the printed circuit and is parallel with the latter. This plate makes it possible to conduct the heat to be evacuated to the housing. The latter is therefore responsible for dissipating the collected heat to outside of the equipment. This dissipation can be obtained simply by making the housing from a material having high thermal conductivity or by placing a heat exchanger in the housing. For this purpose, it is possible to include channels in the housing through which flows, for example, air or water. It is therefore necessary to connect these channels to a cooling system outside of the equipment.
These solutions make it possible to cool the equipment in an overall manner but do not pay attention to possible hot spots, formed at the level of certain particular components. In order to keep these components at acceptable operating temperatures, it is necessary to increase the overall cooling of the equipment, for example by increasing the flow rates of the coolant fluids. This increases pressure drops in the cooling circuits beyond that which would be necessary for the overall cooling of the equipment.
In order to cool particular areas of boards, it is possible to place in direct contact with the component to be cooled an element, such as for example a heat pipe, making it possible to evacuate the heat by conduction directly at the level of the component. One end of the heat pipe is in contact with the component and the other end must allow the evacuation of the heat to outside of the equipment. The installation of this type of component makes the disassembly of the electronic boards more difficult.
In certain fields, notably in aeronautics, the replacement of electronic boards must be carried out quickly in order not to immobilize the carrier. It is therefore necessary to retain the same replacement time of a board, whether or not the latter is equipped with special cooling means.